


the facts were these

by euphrasette



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, pushing daisies - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euphrasette/pseuds/euphrasette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which necromancer and pie maker Marius Pontmercy solves murders with the help of his alive-again childhood sweetheart, a happy-go-lucky private investigator, and a surly waitress.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Marius Pontmercy was in the middle of rolling out the crust for a delicious triple-berry when Courfeyrac barged into the Musain with a newspaper clipping. Sighing, Marius brushed the flour off of his hands and walked out of the kitchen.

“Hello. Did you come for some pie?”

He knew exactly what Courfeyrac was there for. A newspaper clipping could only mean one thing.

“Good one, Pontmercy. Look what I found in the obituaries. Murdered in a Paris hotel, apparently by strangulation. And there’s a pretty hefty reward for any information on the case.”

He slid the paper across the counter to Marius, who picked it up and promptly turned a startling shade of white.

“Oh my God! I know her! Well, I used to, anyway, when I was little. She lived across the street… I can’t believe she’s dead.”

Marius was pretty sure the room was spinning.

“Whoa, man, maybe you should sit down for a sec, you don’t look so good. We don’t have to take this one if you don’t want—“

Marius cut him off. “No, I’m fine, it’s fine. Just a little surprised is all. We can take the bus in in a few minutes, Éponine can close up.”

Courfeyrac looked at him suspiciously. “You sure you’re alright?”

Marius attempted to smile, but what came out was a terrified grimace.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, yeah, it’s all good. No worries.”

***  
Marius was not very excited at the prospect of going back to his hometown. Not because it wasn’t a perfectly lovely town, because it was. The lawns were green and the neighbors were friendly. It was just that Marius’s time in the town was something he had been trying to forget about since he left a decade ago.

For the first ten years of his life, his childhood was idyllic. He loved his father dearly and, if his grandfather was a little strict, Marius had his father to make up for it. He spent most of his time playing with his neighbor, Euphrasie “Cosette” Fauchelevent. They could spend entire days whatever imaginary games they could think of. This arrangement worked out nicely until Georges Pontmercy suddenly fell dead while making dinner one night. So Marius, having not yet learned of the consequences that came with using his unusual talent, tapped his father on the cheek and watched him come alive again. Of course, Marius didn’t know that, exactly one minute later, Cosette’s mother would collapse while playing with her little girl across the street.  
And Cosette’s mother’s death turned out to be for naught, anyway, as Marius also hadn’t learned the second rule of his gift; first touch life, second touch death. So he had to watch his father die again while tucking him in that night, and this time all the touches in the world couldn’t bring him back.

After that traumatic day, Marius was raised by his strict, controlling grandfather. Gillenormand did not like for Marius to spend too much time playing, and limited the boy’s time with Cosette until it was nonexistent. He didn’t even allow Marius to go to school, as he believed that schools were too soft on students, and instead homeschooled Marius himself. Ten years later, Marius could still remember how grueling the lessons were. And how terrifying his grandfather could be if he dared to give a wrong answer.

So it isn’t very surprising that Marius left town as soon as he was able and tried to completely erase the first eighteen years of his life. But now he was going back, if only for an afternoon.

***  
“Hey, man, we’re here.” Courfeyrac waved his hand in front of Marius’s face, yanking him from his reverie.

Marius blinked a few times and shook his head. “Oh, okay, awesome.” He stood up and began to make his way off the bus.

“Last chance to back out!” Courfeyrac said as they got off.

“No, it’ll be…good for me. I haven’t talked to the girl since I was eleven. She was my first kiss, actually,” he laughed a little, “and my last.” he muttered under his breath.

“Dude, you haven’t kissed anyone since you were eleven? Why didn’t you tell me? I could hook you up, man!” He punched Marius’s shoulder lightly.

Well, he thought it was light. Marius’s pained wince said otherwise.

Once again, Marius tried and failed to smile. Courfeyrac sent him a strange look, but let it slide.

“So, my best guess would be the funeral home.” Courfeyrac said matter-of-factly.

“Sorry, what?”

“You know, so you can wake up your strangled sweetheart?”  
“Oh, right. I know where that is, it’s right down the street.”

“Lead the way!”

***  
A few minutes of walking later, they made their way into the Thénardier funeral home, and quickly found Thénardier himself.

Marius cleared his throat. “Hello, uh, this might sound a little strange, and it is pretty strange, actually, but—“

Courfeyrac elbowed him. “Shut up!” He hissed.

“We’re private investigators. Could you tell us where we can find Euphrasie Fauchelevent? We’d like to…examine the body real quick.” Courfeyrac said, going up to shake Thénardier’s hand.  
Marius saw Thénardier transfer something green into his pocket. He smiled in a way that could only be described as sleazy.

“Well, certainly, boys. Real tragedy, huh? Such a pretty girl. She’s the second door on your left.” He said, pointing down the hall.

They walked down the hall, and Courfeyrac was about to open the door when Marius stopped him.

“Would you mind if I, uh, maybe did this one alone? You know, for…closure?” Marius asked quietly.

Courfeyrac nodded knowingly. “Yeah, man, that’s fine. But just promise me that before you get to any of this “closure” stuff, you ask her who killed her, okay? You only have a minute.”

“Yeah, I know, I promise.”

“Okay. I’ll be outside if you need me.” Courfeyrac patted him on the back and walked away.  
Marius took a second to compose himself and opened the door, which was a bit of a challenge because his hands were shaking so much.

The coffin was on a table, already open. He slowly went over to take a look. She looked so peaceful, almost like she was sleeping, her glossy dark hair fanned out on the satin lining. Marius had forgotten how beautiful she was.

After some careful deliberation, he decided to kiss her cheek. He set his watch for exactly sixty seconds and slowly bent down and pressed his lips to her soft skin. She shot up immediately, hitting Marius’s head and knocking him to the ground.  
“What the—Where am I? Is this a coffin? Oh, that’s right, I was murdered. I guess that wasn’t a nightmare after all. Is this the afterlife?”

Cosette looked around the room frantically.

Marius got up from the ground, rubbing his head. “Hey, Cosette, uh, sorry about what happened to you. Can I ask you—“

“Oh my God, Marius? Are you dead, too? It’s so sweet that they sent you to welcome me. I’ve missed you a lot since you left.”

“Yeah, I missed you, too…But I’m actually here to ask who killed you?”

“Oh, I don’t know, they came up behind me. I didn’t see them. So, is this heaven, or…?”

“I’m not dead, actually. We’re in the funeral home.” Marius said.

Cosette smiled. “Oh. That would explain the coffin. So…does this mean I’m not dead anymore?”  
Marius’s smile disappeared when he saw the hopeful look on Cosette’s face. He glanced at his watch again.

“Only for another twelve seconds. I’m so, so sorry, Cosette. And I promise we’ll find who killed you.”

Both of them began to cry, and Marius wanted nothing more than to hug her tightly without watching her die again.

Cosette wiped away her tears. “Oh, no, that’s okay, don’t cry! I’m glad you’re the last person I saw, I thought I’d never see you again, so that’s good! And, if you don’t mind, could you tell my Papa I love him and I’m sorry? I know it’s clichéd, but…”

“Yes, of course, I’m so sorry.” Marius half-sobbed.

“Marius, really, it’s okay.”

He leaned down to kiss her for the last time, and stopped. He couldn't bring himself to do it. A second later, his watch beeped.

“Marius, I think it’s been longer than twelve seconds.” Cosette said quietly.

He nodded.

“Does that mean I still have to stay dead?”  
“Can you just…stay here for a sec? I’ll be right back.”

Not waiting to hear Cosette’s answer, Marius ran outside, thinking only of Courfeyrac. He hadn't remembered that his friend had been right outside the funeral home. There was a good chance that he was the closest person when Marius had let Cosette stay alive past her minute. He might have just inadvertently killed his best friend.

He almost fainted out of sheer relief when he saw Courfeyrac sitting on a bench, tapping his foot.  
Courfeyrac turned around when he heard Marius. “Hey! How’d it go?”

“It was…fine.”

“Do we have a suspect?”

Marius felt his heartbeat in his throat. “Not exactly, um—“

Courfeyrac gasped. “Marius, you didn't.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Who’s—“ Courfeyrac began.
> 
> Éponine cut him off. “I’m gonna cut right to the chase here. That’s my mother in there. My father just died and she’s convinced he was killed, or some shit. I wasn’t really listening. But I figure she’ll shut up about it if I hire someone to figure out how he died. That’s where you come in.”

Éponine Thénardier hated when Marius left her to deal with the Musain all by herself so he could go off with Courfeyrac. She had only signed up as a waitress; everything else should be someone else’s problem. And what help was a pie maker to a private investigator, anyway? Especially one as oblivious as Marius. Éponine had once seen him neglect to turn on the oven before putting pies in, then stare at the oven in confusion until she went over and turned it on for him. Not exactly the kind of person you want around for solving murders. Éponine, on the other hand, knew that she would be far more skilled in the art of investigation, and had broached the subject with Courfeyrac several times. She had seen how lucrative the business was, and Éponine never said no to some spare cash. She had yet to get an answer on that.

So it was Éponine who stayed in the Musain, which was totally empty except for some old man who had been in the corner booth for over an hour. She debated going over to make sure he wasn’t dead or anything, but decided against it. As owner, that really was Marius’s job, so she’d let him deal with it when he got back. If he got back. She looked at the clock. Almost closing time. She was thinking about going over to check on the zombie in the corner when the door clanged open.

“Sorry, we were just closing,” Éponine said without turning around.

The client sobbed loudly.

Éponine turned around and gasped. “Oh my God, Mom? What the hell are you doing here?”

Mrs. Thénardier blew her nose noisily. “’Ponine, you gotta help me. Your dad’s dead, somebody’s killed him.”

Éponine led her mother over to a booth and sat her down. “What happened?”

She knew the kind of shady business her father was involved in. The funeral home he owned was his main source of income, but most of that money came from stealing valuables off of the corpses, and God knew where the rest came from. Unsurprisingly, Éponine’s father was a major source of shame for her.

“Well, the doctors said it was natural; a heart attack or something like that. But I just don’t believe it!”  
“Mom, he’s had four previous heart attacks and he’s a raging alcoholic. What’s hard to believe?”

“He’s been on medicines, and the doctors said he was doing good. He’s been eating real healthy, too, all salads, no red meat or anything. I don’t think it would happen so suddenly. I just don’t believe it. And all the stuff he does on the side, I’ll bet somebody staged it.”

Though a natural death still seemed most plausible, Éponine did have to agree that the sketchy “business ventures” her father involved himself in him did make him a likely target of foul play.

“Who do you think did it? Did he owe anyone money?”

“Well, that’s the thing! He owed a whole bunch of people money, it could’ve been any of them!”  
“Okay, well, I think I know someone who can help you, let’s just wait for them to get back.”

Éponine sighed as her mother sobbed messily into her shoulder. This was her favorite shirt.

***  
“Marius, you could’ve fucking killed me! What were you thinking?” Courfeyrac shouted.

Marius looked down at the ground sheepishly. “I wasn’t thinking. I just…I forgot how much I liked her, okay? I couldn’t kill her again. I couldn’t do it.”

“Well, what are you going to do now? Obviously you’re not going to be able to re-dead her.”

“I…I don’t know. You know what? I just remembered I told Cosette I’d be right back and she’s still waiting in her coffin, so…”

He ran off before Courfeyrac could say anything. Courfeyrac sighed. He knew he should have gone in with Marius, the guy was head over heels; of course he hadn’t been able to kill her again. It kind of was Courfeyrac’s own fault.

He decided that, after such a harrowing near-death experience, he could really use a slice of pie. Or maybe an entire pie. So he got on the next bus and made his way back to the Musain.

***  
Marius sprinted back into the funeral home, and then spent a minute trying to remember which room Cosette was in. Eventually, he figured it out and burst into the room, startling Cosette.

“You’re back! I thought you might’ve forgotten about me.” She said.

His attempt at a laugh earned him a strange look from Cosette.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, um… So, I need to get you out of here somehow?”

“So I really get to stay?” Cosette’s eyes lit up.

Marius nodded, and suddenly didn’t feel so guilty about letting her stay past her minute anymore.

“Oh, Marius, thank you so, so much!” She went over to give him a hug.  
He stepped back quickly. “Um, I can’t touch you. Or you’ll die again. I’m sorry.”

Cosette’s smile didn’t fade. “Oh, okay! Wow, that was a close one.”

He took another step back. “Yeah, so… getting you out of here?”

“Oh, right! Well, can’t we just…leave?”

“But won’t they notice that you’re not in your coffin?”

Cosette pursed her lips. “Oh. Would they really open it again?”

“I’m not sure, actually. Do you know if your family was planning on having an open casket service, or…?”

“I doubt Papa would want to open it again. He’d probably think it was disrespectful to me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, not absolutely, but…yeah, pretty sure.”

Marius nodded. It was risky, but he saw no other option. If she stayed in the coffin for longer than a few hours, she’d suffocate. She had to get out now.

He handed Cosette his jacket. “Okay, put this on and keep your head down. We should be safe once we’re on the bus.”

***  
To Courfeyrac’s surprise, he walked into the Musain to find Éponine comforting a large, sobbing woman.

Éponine looked up when he entered. She extricated herself from her mother and motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.

“Who’s—“ Courfeyrac began.

Éponine cut him off. “I’m gonna cut right to the chase here. That’s my mother in there. My father just died and she’s convinced he was killed, or some shit. I wasn’t really listening. But I figure she’ll shut up about it if I hire someone to figure out how he died. That’s where you come in.”

Courfeyrac never refused a case; he had bills to pay.

“Yeah, sure. Is she up to talking about it, or…?”  
“Probably not coherently. But, from what I understand, he was at work and he just dropped dead. The doctors said it was from a heart attack, which isn’t exactly a shocker, seeing as he was an alcoholic who had four previous heart attacks, but my mother’s not buying it.”

“Okay. Where was he when he died?”

“He owned a funeral home in the next town over. And, get this, he was stealing jewelry off of some lady’s corpse when it happened. I guess he died doing what he loved.” She laughed humorlessly.

Courfeyrac’s heart stopped. Éponine Thénardier. Thénardier’s funeral home. How had he not put that together? And if Courfeyrac hadn’t been the closest person to Marius when he brought his girlfriend back, then somebody else was. Specifically, the funeral director robbing corpses in the next room over.

“Um, okay…that really sounds like natural causes to me? I don’t see any reason to further investigate.” He said quickly.

Éponine glowered at him. “So, you’re not gonna take it? Come on, it’s easy money! I mean, I guess I could ask someone else, but I figured you’d want it. And I also thought you might give me a discount.”

Courfeyrac thought about just taking the case. He didn’t like the thought of somebody else looking too closely at this; it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out that he and Marius had both been there when Thénardier died. And Courfeyrac refusing to take the case would make him look even more suspicious. But if he did take the case, then he could just conduct an investigation only to find that it had, in fact, been natural causes. As long as no one looked too closely at his methods, then it would all work out. And Pontmercy would be forever in his debt.

“Yeah, fine, I’ll take it. I still don’t think foul play was involved, but it never hurts to look. Meet me at my office in an hour to discuss payment.”

Courfeyrac hoped that Éponine didn’t notice how quickly he left the Musain. Or that his hands were shaking.

***  
Marius let Cosette get off the bus first, and then made sure he kept a safe distance from her on the sidewalk.

“So, where are we going?” Cosette asked as they walked down the street.

“First I should probably make sure Éponine closed up the Musain, my pie shop.”  
Cosette grinned. “Oh, you have a pie shop? That’s great! I remember how much you loved baking when we were kids.”

He smiled at the ground. “Yeah, um…it’s really great. I just bake pies all day.”

“I can’t wait to try all of them.”

Marius smiled again. They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes until they reached the Musain.

He opened the door for Cosette. “After you.”

She giggled and walked inside, followed by Marius. As he had expected, the lights were off and everything appeared to be in its place for the night. He knew he could trust Éponine.

Marius was about to turn on the lights and give Cosette the grand tour when he remembered Courfeyrac, who was probably waiting in his office for him.

“So, are you going to show me around?” Cosette asked.

“Yeah, but, how about tomorrow? I need to go see Courfeyrac, my…business partner.”

She tried not to let her disappointment show. “Oh, okay. Am I coming with you?”

She hoped she didn’t sound petulant. The guy had just saved her life; he didn’t owe her anything.

“Yeah, of course. His office is right down the street.”

Cosette perked right back up again. “Lead the way!”

***  
Courfeyrac had just finished up with Éponine when Marius walked in with a grinning brunette girl he assumed was Cosette.

“Hey, so, this is Cosette.” Marius said sheepishly.

She walked over to Courfeyrac and held out her hand. “Hi! You must be Courfeyrac. It’s so nice to meet you.”

He shook her hand begrudgingly. “Charmed.”

She either didn’t notice his sarcastic tone, or chose to ignore it, as her smile remained plastered onto her face.

Marius cleared his throat. “So…yeah. Just thought I’d introduce you guys. So if you don’t need me for anything else I guess we’ll be leaving.”

He was just about to open the door when Courfeyrac stopped him.

“So, I was just talking to Éponine. You know, Éponine Thénardier?”

Marius gave Courfeyrac a strange look. “Okay…why?”

“Oh, you know, business. Her dad just died, isn’t that terrible?”

Cosette shook her head. “Oh, no, that’s horrible.”

Marius cocked his head like a confused puppy. Courfeyrac sighed; he always had to hit Marius over the head with something before he actually got it.

“Yeah, it really is. Apparently Mr. Thénardier was at work when he just dropped dead all of a sudden.”

Marius’s eyes widened with understanding. After he had confirmed that it hadn’t been Courfeyrac, he had forgotten that someone else still had to die. And of course the funeral director would have been the closest to the showroom. He killed Éponine’s dad.

Marius really needed to stop killing his friends’ parents.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Untended for several days now, the garden was filled with weeds. The tomatoes were rotting on the ground and the flowers had begun to droop. But Valjean couldn’t open the front door. He couldn’t even look out the window.

Cosette was not very happy about being kicked out of Courfeyrac’s office. She knew they were talking about business, but she could have been helpful. She liked to think she was pretty intelligent. And it wasn’t as if she had anything else to do.

Actually, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do ever. At this point, she was basically a fugitive; people could recognize her and wonder what she was doing alive if she went out in public undisguised. So she could never get a job or anything like that. And what about her papa? She wondered if Marius would allow her to see him again, and decided that she would ask him later that night. Cosette could be very persuasive, so she was fairly sure that she would get her way. She smiled at the thought of seeing her papa again. She could only imagine how terrible he felt, thinking she was lying dead in her coffin. The funeral would be in a few days, and he would be all alone, without Cosette to comfort him. She was his only living relative. And his only friend. At that moment, he was probably sitting alone in their little house, or maybe tending their garden. She sighed wistfully. It had only been a week since she had last seen her father, but already she felt incredibly homesick.

As she opened the Musain using the key Marius had given her, Cosette shook off these negative feelings. She should have been in a coffin, but instead she was up and walking and alive! And she would probably see her papa soon, anyway. She sat down at the counter to wait for the girl who Marius had asked to bring Cosette to his apartment.

She didn’t have to wait very long, as the door clanged open a minute later. Cosette turned around to find a skinny girl with a pixie cut staring at her a little menacingly.

Cosette got off the stool to meet the girl. “Hi! I’m Cosette. Thank you so much for showing me to the apartment!”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Éponine. You ready to go?”

Cosette followed her out of the Musain and down the street, until they reached a large green building.

“So, do you live here, too?” Cosette asked as they entered the building and got on the elevator.  
“Yeah. I live across the hall.” Éponine said curtly.

Éponine wasn’t really sure who this girl was, or why she was going to Marius’s apartment. All Marius had said was that “Cosette” was waiting in the Musain and needed to be dropped off. She could have been his sister, but Éponine’s luck wasn’t that good. She was probably his girlfriend, and if he was letting her into his apartment then it must have been pretty serious. But then why had Éponine never seen her in the Musain before? She hadn’t thought that Marius really dated.  
She gave Cosette a discreet once-over as the elevator went up. Éponine supposed she was pretty enough, with her long, glossy hair and big brown eyes. Her fashion sense was interesting, to say the least. She was wearing a blindingly pink blouse with a massive floral skirt, and her hair was tied back with an actual ribbon. Éponine hadn’t thought that anyone above the age of five did that.

They got off the elevator, and Éponine opened Marius’s door with the spare key he had given her “for emergencies”. She actually used it quite frequently to sneak in when he wasn’t home. Most of the time, she snooped, just out of sheer boredom, though she never found anything particularly interesting. But, sometimes, she would just sit on his couch for an hour, not really doing anything. She wasn’t sure why she did it.

“Thank you so much!” Cosette said as she walked into the apartment.

Éponine muttered a response and walked across the hall to her own apartment.

***  
Marius put his head in his hands. “What do we do?”

“Well, I took the case, obviously. You’re welcome. So I guess we just make it look like he had a heart attack. Should be easy enough.”

Marius sat down across from Courfeyrac’s desk. “But what if it doesn’t work? Could I… go to jail?”

“Marius, chill. Even if there were an investigation, how would they connect it back to you? Sure, you were there, but you were in the other room! There’s no way you could have done it without the whole necromancy thing, which I doubt they’ll really be looking for.”

Courfeyrac wasn’t so sure about this, but he just wanted Marius to stop crying.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Marius took a deep breath. “Okay. What now?”

“Well, we should probably go check out the corpse. I think it’s still in the morgue.”

***  
Jean Valjean had thrown himself into the planning of Cosette’s funeral, and it had kept the unwanted thoughts away. There weren’t very many people to invite; like Valjean, Cosette had been a homebody without many friends. He now wondered if this had been because she actually enjoyed that life or if it was for his own sake. He was fairly sure it was the latter.

The day of the funeral was surreal. He felt as if he was watching himself go through the motions from above, and he was grateful for the detachment that brought. He was able to remain stoic for the entire service, even as they lowered the coffin into the ground. To him, it seemed as if the whole thing wasn’t really happening. It was just a dream; he would wake up in the morning and Cosette would finally be back from Paris. He would tell her how much he had missed her, and she would tell him all about her trip as they ate breakfast.

But days continued to pass after the funeral, and the surreal feeling was replaced by crushing grief. Some days, he never got out of bed, and just laid there awake, unable to do anything else. Other days, he was able to get himself out of bed, but he never made it out the front door, not even to tend the garden.

The garden had been Cosette’s idea, right after Valjean had stepped in after her mother died. She had decided that her father needed to spend more time outside, so she had painstakingly cleaned out a little plot in the front yard and picked out little seeds at the supermarket. She had coaxed Valjean into helping her plant the seeds, and they had worked on the garden every day ever since. It had become quite large, with vegetables on one side and flowers on the other. Valjean had always worked on the vegetables and Cosette on the flowers.

Untended for several days now, the garden was filled with weeds. The tomatoes were rotting on the ground and the flowers had begun to droop. But Valjean couldn’t open the front door. He couldn’t even look out the window.

***  
Marius was so busy with the case he was working on that Cosette hadn’t been able to ask him about her papa all week. She had been busy, too, as, to her delight, Marius had allowed her to work in the Musain after hours of begging. She understood his concern for her safety, but had no desire to sit alone in the apartment that he had been kind enough to share with her.  
So she had learned how to bake the pies, and Éponine continued to serve them. As Marius was so busy with the case, it was just the two of them most days. Cosette frequently tried to start conversation to break the silence, but Éponine was largely unresponsive to her efforts, and was often outright rude. Cosette, however, was unfazed by the other girl’s frostiness. To Éponine’s chagrin, she was just as chipper as ever.

Cosette was finally able to broach the subject of her papa a few nights later when Marius got home earlier than usual.

She didn’t waste any time with idle conversation. “Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

Marius was taken aback, and slightly terrified. Their arrangement had been successful enough, with the apartment and Cosette working in the Musain, but he knew she probably wasn’t happy. She probably wanted to leave, and he couldn’t blame her.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“Well, you know that since I…died, I haven’t been able to go back to my old life, which I’m totally fine with, and I understand why I can’t, and everything. But do you think I could maybe see my papa? I really miss him, and he’s all alone, and he thinks I’m dead.”

“Cosette, I don’t think—“

She cut him off. “We could do it in secret! It’s not like I would go to my old house, or anything. Even just once so he knows I’m alive.”

Marius looked down at the ground. “I just don’t think it would be a good idea. People don’t usually respond well to this kind of thing, and there would be…consequences. I’m so sorry.”

Cosette blinked back tears. “Are you sure?”

Marius nodded. She went into the bathroom, and Marius could hear her sobs through the thin walls. He sat down on the couch and began to cry himself. This had been the most stressful week of his life.

***  
Meanwhile, local politician Jeanette Lamarque took a sip of her coffee. It probably wasn’t smart to drink coffee this late at night, but it wasn’t as if she planned on sleeping that night anyway.

Almost immediately, she felt a sharp chain in her chest. As she reached out to grab her cell phone, her vision blurred and she fell to the ground.


End file.
